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Scope:

Introduction

Automotive aluminum use has been growing for years (from an average of
87 pounds per car in 1976 to
248 pounds in 1999), mainly to reduce weight and improve fuel economy.
Each pound of aluminum used
can reduce vehicle weight as much as 1.5 pounds. Automotive frames and
bodies can make even further
use of aluminum's unique combination of strength, light weight,
crash-energy absorption, corrosion
resistance, and thermal and electrical conductivity.

As new car prices increase (they roughly quadrupled between 1978 and
1999), durability and
corrosion resistance take on new importance. Buyers want vehicles that
will retain their appearance
and keep a high resale value. That is something that aluminum can
provide, as automakers offer
longer warranties against component failure and body rust-out.

Aluminum - even unpainted and uncoated - resists corrosion by water
and road salt and, in
noncosmetically critical parts, its use can avoid the substantial
extra costs of galvanizing,
coating and painting required for steel. Aluminum does not rust like
steel if the paint is
scratched or chipped. Nor is it weakened or embrittled, as some
plastics may be, by desert heat,
northern cold, or the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. For its new
delivery vans, the U.S. Postal
Service specified aluminum bodies designed to last 24 years!

Finally, when a car must be scrapped aluminum is readily recycled with
a high residual scrap value,
providing both economic and environmental benefits.

Aluminum, with its wide choice of alloys and tempers, offers a wealth
of advantages to automotive
engineers developing new car designs of the future.